It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade, old landmarks crumble and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News… — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The high-level discussions about these “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic….

The advisers were members of the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

… this is the first time sources have disclosed that a handful of the most senior advisers in the White House explicitly approved the details of the program. According to multiple sources, it was members of the Principals Committee that not only discussed specific plans and specific interrogation methods, but approved them….

Highly placed sources said CIA directors Tenet and later Porter Goss along with agency lawyers briefed senior advisers, including Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Powell, about detainees in CIA custody overseas.

“It kept coming up. CIA wanted us to sign off on each one every time,” said one high-ranking official who asked not to be identified. “They’d say, ‘We’ve got so and so. This is the plan.'”

Sources said that at each discussion, all the Principals present approved….

According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: “Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.”

It’s not just History which will not judge this kindly, Mr. Ashcroft. If a federal judge ever gets his or her hands on this case, I imagine there will be a criminal judgment of conspiracy to commit torture.

Federal law, specifically 18 USC 2340, includes in its definition of torture the threat of imminent death. Waterboarding, which creates the threat of imminent death in the person subjected to it, is therefore an act of torture under federal law.

Furthermore, the same federal law specifies that U.S. citizens U.S. nationals, and individuals on U.S. soil who commit torture whether here or overseas “shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if death results to any person from conduct prohibited by this subsection, shall be punished by death or imprisoned for any term of years or for life.”

Finally, the same federal law stipulates that “A person who conspires to commit an offense under this section shall be subject to the same penalties (other than the penalty of death) as the penalties prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the conspiracy.”

Is the United States of America a nation governed by laws, or is the United States of America a nation government by people unaccountable to the law?

In a nation of laws, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, George Tenet and John Ashcroft would be charged with the felony crime of Conspiracy to Commit Torture.

In a nation of unaccountable power, these members of the Bush administration would get off scot-free, without so much as a grand jury.

Watch and see what happens. It will tell you what kind of country you live in.

4 comments to Breaking: Are Cheney, Rice and Rumsfeld Getting Set to Face Felony Conspiracy Charges?

Oh right, like teflon Bush and Lord Cheney are going to be convicted by the Supreme Court that they stacked with their right-wing buddies. i really doubt it. These poor excuses for humans have screwed over the entire U.S. for the good of their corporate cronies and it continues to this day. The Bush administration will go down in history as being the one that ruined America and our standing in the world. Until we get the K-street lobbyists out of there the citizenry doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in Mexico of changing anything meaningfully, no matter who gets “elected.”

Last time i looked, the Rethuglicans in charge were spinning their interpretation of the Constitution to say that since the captured “combatants” haven’t been charged with any crime, their incarceration and treatment are not covered!

So Obama wants to go after past administrations. Hmmm. The Clintons better get out of the country quick. Oh I forgot he made the Lead Murderer Hillry SoS. I guess he is just sticking up for his Muslim friend Bin Ladin. He just doesn’t get it. He is not some game show winner, he is President.

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